A Good Name
“A good name is better than precious ointment.” — ECCLES. VII. 1.
AT this point we come out into a purer atmosphere; we emerge upon a higher platform; and, if we have not day-spring, we have the harbingers of dawn.
Hitherto the book has chiefly contained the diagnosis of the great disease. Repeating the successive symptoms as they developed in himself, the lloyal patient has passed before us in every variety of mood, from the sleepy collapse of one who has eaten the fabled lotus, up to the frantic consciousness of a Hercules tearing his limbs as he tries to rend off his robe of fiery poison. He now comes to the cure. He enumerates the prescriptions which he tried, and mentions their results. Most of them afforded some relief. They made him “better.” But they were only palliatives. There was something which always impaired their efficacy; and it is only at the very end that he announces the great panacea, and gives us what is better than a thousand palliatives, — an unfailing specific.
The recipes contained in this and the subsequent chapters availed to mitigate Solomon’s vexation, but they failed to cure it. They mitigated it, because each of them was one ingredient of the great specific; they failed to cure it, because they were only isolated ingredients. Each maxim of virtue is conducive to happy living; but the love of God is the vitality of all virtue; and, in order to secure its full practical value, we must supply to each separate maxim the great animating motive. A rule of conduct which is “dead, so long as it abideth alone,” may be very helpful when quickened, and when occupying its appropriate place in a system of evangelical ethics.
Solomon’s first beatitude is an honourable reputation. He knew what it had been to possess it; and he knew what it was to lose it. And here he says, Happy is the possessor of an untarnished character! so happy that he cannot die too soon! “A good name is better than precious ointment; and (to its owner) the day of death is better than the day of birth.”
A name truly good is the aroma from virtuous character. It is a spontaneous emanation from genuine excellence. It is a reputation for whatsoever things are honest and lovely, and of good report. It is such a name as is not only remembered on earth but written in heaven. The names of Abel and Enoch and Noah are good names, and so are all which have been transmitted in that “little book of martyrs,” the eleventh of Hebrews: those “elders” who not only obtained the Church’s good report, through faith, but who had this testimony, “that they pleased God.” But in order to a good name some thing else is needed besides a good nature. Flowers have bloomed in the desert which were only viewed by God and the angels; and there have been solitary saints whose holiness was only recognised by Him who created it, and by just men made perfect. And so wicked is this world that much excellence may have vanished from its surface unknown and unsuspected. The Inquisition has, no doubt, extinguished many an Antipas, and in the Sodoms of our earth many a Lot has vexed his soul and died with no Pentateuch to preserve his memory. To secure a reputation there must not only be the genuine excellence but the genial atmosphere. There must be some good men to observe and appreciate the goodness while it lived, and others to foster its memory when gone. But should both combine, — the worth and the appreciation of worth, — the resulting good name is better than precious ointment. Rarer and more costly, it is also one of the most salutary influences that can penetrate society. For, just as a box of spikenard is not only valuable to its possessor, but pre-eminently precious in its diffusion; so, when a name is really good, it is of unspeakable service to all who are capable of feeling its exquisite inspiration. And should the Spirit of God so replenish a man with his gifts and graces, as to render his name thus wholesome, better than the day of his birth will be the day of his death; for at death the box is broken and the sweet savour spreads abroad. There is an end of the envy and sectarianism and jealousy, the detraction and the calumny, which often environ goodness when living; and now that the stopper of prejudice is removed, the world fills with the odour of the ointment, and thousands grow stronger and more lifesome for the good name of one. Better in this respect, better than their birth-day was the dying day of Hemy Martyn and Robert M’Cheyne; for the secret of their hidden life was then revealed, and, mingled as it is with the name of Jesus, the Church will never lose the perfume. And in this respect better than their birthday was the dying- day of Dr. Arnold and Sir Fowell Buxton; for men could then forget the offence of controversy and the irritation of party politics, and could surrender to the undiluted charm of healthy piety and heroic Christianity. And better, thus regarded, was the dying-day of Stephen and James and Paul; for every disciple could then forget the infirmities by which some had been annoyed and the faithfulness by which others had been offended, and could treasure up that best of a good man’s relics, the memory of a devoted life, — the sweet odour of an unquestioned sanctity.
Do not despise a good name. There is no better heritage that a father can bequeath to his children, and there are few influences on society more whole some than the fame of its worthies. The names of
Luther and Knox, of Hampden and Washington, of Schwartz and Eliot, are still doing good in the world. Nor is there in a family any richer heir-loom than the memory of a noble ancestor. Without a good name you can possess little ascendancy over others; and when it has not pioneered your way and won a prepossession for yourself, your patriotic or benevolent intentions are almost sure to be defeated.
And yet it will never do to seek a good name as a primary object. Like trying to be graceful, the effort to be popular will make you contemptible. Take care of your spirit and conduct, and your reputation will take care of itself. It is by “blamelessness and good behaviour,” that not only bishops, but individual believers, are to gain “a good report of them who are without.” The utmost that you are called to do as the custodier of your own reputation is to remove injurious aspersions. Let not your good be evil spoken of, and follow the highest examples in mild and explicit self- vindication. Still, no reputation can be permanent which does not spring from principle; and he who would maintain a good character should be mainly solicitous to maintain a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men.
Where others are concerned the case is different. To our high-principled and deserving brethren, we owe a frank commendation and a fraternal testimony. “To rejoice in their good name; to cover their infirmities; freely to acknowledge their gifts and M 2 graces; readily to receive a good report, and unwillingly to admit an evil report concerning them; to discourage tale-bearers and slanderers,”* are duties which we owe to our neighbours; and good names are not so numerous but that the utmost care should be taken of them. When Dr. M’Crie published the Life of our Reformer, it was very noble in Dugald Stewart to seek out the young author in his humble dwelling and cheer him with his earnest eulogy. And when one of the Reformation heroes was maligned, it was fine to see their advocate rummaging amongst the archives of the Public Library, till the discrepant date enabled him to exclaim, “Thank God! our friend was by that time safe in Abraham’s bosom!” It was a happy thing for Paul to have so good a name among the Gentile Churches, that his mere request was enough to bring large contributions to the poor saints at Jerusalem; but, if so, what a happy thought to Barnabas to know that when Paul himself was an object of suspicion to the Church at Jerusalem, f his own good name had been the new convert’s passport and guarantee.
* Westminster Larger Catechism.
t Acts ix. 26, 27.
December 15, 1850.